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SEYMOUR  DURST 


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in  2014 

https://archive.org/details/unionaddressbyhoOOdick_0 


THE  UNION. 


We  are  admonished  by  "the  divinity  that  stirs  within  us,"  as  well 
as  by  all  history  and  experience  in  human  affairs,  that  there  are  prin- 
ciples which  can  never  be  subverted,  truths  which  never  die.  The 
religion  of  a  Saviour,  who,  at  his  nativity,  was  cradled  on  the  straw 
pallet  of  destitution,  who  in  declaring  and  enforcing  his  divine  mission 
was  sustained  by  obscure  fishermen,  who  was  spit  upon  by  the  rabble, 
persecuted  by  power,  and  betrayed  by  treachery  to  envy,  has  by  its 
inherent  forces  subdued,  civilized,  and  conquered  a  world ;  not  by  the 
tramp  of  hostile  armies,  the  roar  of  artillery,  or  the  stirring  airs  of 
martial  music,  but  by  the  swell  of  the  same  heavenly  harmonies  which 
aroused  the  drowsy  shepherds  at  the  rock-founded  city  of  Bethlehem, 
proclaiming  in  their  dulcet  warblings,  peace  on  earth  and  good  will 
toward  men;  not  by  flashes  of  contending  steel,  amidst  the  bad  pas- 
sions of  the  battle-field,  the  shrieks  of  the  dying,  and  the  flames  of 
subjugated  cities,  but  by  the  glowing  light  which  shot  athwart  the 
firmament,  and  illumined  the  whole  heavens  at  his  advent.  Thus  wiis 
ushered  in  that  memorable  epoch  in  the  world's  eventful  history,  the 
Christian  era — an  era  wnich  closed  one  volume  in  the  record  of  man's 
existence,  and  opened  another — which  drew  aside  the  dark  curtain  of 
death  and  degradation,  exhibiting  to  life's  worn  and  weary  pilgrim 
along  the  wastes  of  ignorance  and  barbarism,  new  domains  of  hope 
and  happiness  for  exploration  and  improvement,  new  fields  for  him  to 
subdue  and  fertilize  and  reap,  and  new  triumphs  for  him  to  achieve  in 
the  cause  of  human  regeneration.  And  let  him  who  fails  to  estimate 
the  priceless  value  of  this  divine  reformation  in  a  temporal  sense  alone, 
contrast  the  condition  of  man  wherever  Christian  civilization  has 
travelled,  with  a  people  groping  amidst  the  degrading  darkness  of 
idolatry,  or  bowing  beneath  some  imposture  still  more  heaven-daring 
and  impious. 

Second  only  in  interest  and  importance  to  the  religion  of  Him  who 
spake  as  never  man  spake,  is  that  system  of  political  truth  which  pro- 
1 


THE     t  M  O  S  . 


claims  the  doctrine  of  man's  equality,  and  elevates  him  in  the  scale 
|  of  being,  to  that  dignity  of  station  which  heaven  destined  him  to  fill. 
For  untold  centuries,  despotism  and  kingcraft  had  asserted  dominion 
over  the  w  orld's  masses.  Every  attempt  to  break  the  fetters  which 
held  a  people  in  vassalage  had  resulted  in  riveting  them  more  securely 
upon  the  limbs  of  servitude.  Labor  had  groaned  under  the  exactions, 
i  and  the  spirit  had  prayed  long  and  fervently  for  deliverance,  but  in 
vain.  The  failure  of  every  effort  to  correct  an  organization  so  false 
and  vicious,  and  cruel,  and  restore  the  power  >\\  :.\ l»y  the  tyrannic 
few  to  the  plundered  many,  had  been  written  in  human  blood,  until 

*  Hope,  for  t  season,  bade  the  world  £uvweUV 

Bat  our  fathers,  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  liberty,  which  a  free 
respiration  of  the  air  of  the  new  world  inspired,  and  goaded  to  des- 
peration by  the  exactions  of  oppression,  rolled  tin-  >:.»ne  from  the 
dooi  of  the  sepulchre,  where  crucified  and  entombed  liberty  was 
slumbering,  and  it  arose  to  light  and  life,  to  cheer,  and  bless,  and  give 
hope  to  the  down-trodden  humanity  of  earth;  to  emancipate  the  im- 
mortal mind  from  the  slavery  by  which  it  was  degraded.  They 
asserted  the  simplest  yet  sublimest  of  political  truths,  that  all  men 
were  created  equal.  They  arraigned  at  the  bar  of  a  Christian  world, 
trembling,  tyrannous,  stultified  legitimacy,  while  asserting  its  impious 
dogma  of  heaven-descended  rulers,  and  they  repudiated  and  laughed 
to  scorn  the  fraudulent  theories,  base  pretensions  and  vain  ceremonials 
of  its  political  hierarchy.  They  declared  in  the  broadest  sense  the 
right  of  man's  self-government,  and  his  capacity  for  its  exercise,  and 
sought  release  from  a  proud  and  haughty  monarchy,  that  they  might 
enjoy  upon  this  contineut  a  nation's  independence,  and  found  a  system 
which  recognized  the  equality  of  men.  in  which  their  theories  were 
established.  They  trusted  the  future  of  their  "lives,  their  fortunes 
and  their  sacred  honor,"  to  the  chances  of  a  great  experiment,  and 
while  the  timid  faltered,  the  treacherous  betrayed,  the  mercenary 
moaned,  and  the  unbelieving  derided,  far-seeing  patriotism  pressed 
forward  wiih  an  eye  of  faith,  upon  its  mission  of  progress,  until  hope 
gave  place  to  fruition ;  until  expectation  became  success,  until  the 
most  formidable  power  of  earth  learned  the  salutary  lesson  that  a 
proud  nation,  mighty  in  armed  men.  and  strong  in  the  terrible  ma- 
terial of  war  by  sea  and  by  land,  could  not  conqner  the  everlasting 
truth.  The  experiment,  so  full  of  promise  and  yet  so  threatened  with 
dangers,  became  an  accomplished  fact.  Like  a  grain  of  mustard- 
seed,  sown  in  a  subdued  faith,  it  shot  upward,  and  became  an  over- 
shadowing tree,  so  wide-spread  and  luxuriant,  that  the  birds  of  the 


THE     DfflOf . 


3 


air  conld  rest  in  its  branches.  Would  that  none  of  the  evil  omen  had 
ever  taken  refuge  there!  Thns  was  planted  the  germ  of  liberty  in 
this  holy  land  of  freedom.  It  was  nurtured  in  the  warm  heart's 
blood  of  patriots,  and  watered  by  the  tears  of  widow-  and  of  orphans: 
but  for  a  time  it  was  tremulous  and  slender,  and  like  a  frail  reed  it 
bowed  before  every  breeze.  Oh,  what  invocations  ascended  to  Him 
"  who  tempers  the  wind  to  the  shorn  lamb."  for  that  cherished  shoot, 
that  the  u  winds  of  heaven  might  not  visit  it  too  roughly.'7  With  the 
fathers  of  revolution,  it  was  remembered  at  the  morning  and  evening 
sacrifice.  "  When  its  leaves  withered  they  mourned,  and  when  it  re- 
joiced, they  rejoiced  with  it."  But  those  who  planted  it,  and  watched 
over  its  spring-time  with  more  than  a  fathers  solicitude,  have  gone  up 
to  loftier  courts,  and  repose  under  the  fadeless  foliage  of  the  tree  of  life. 
The  gray-haired  minister  who  craved  for  it  God's  blessings,  has  been 
wafted  away  like  the  prophet  of  old,  in  a  chariot  of  tire,  and  the  children 
who  sported  together  on  the  grass  beneath  it,  now  slumber  with  their 
fathers.  The  last  revolutionary  soldier  who  rejoiced  in  its  pride,  and 
told  with  tears  its  early  trials,  "  shouldered  his  crutch,  and  showed 
how  fields  were  won."  has  been  mustered  into  the  service  of  his  Lord 
and  Master,  where  the  tramp  of  cavalry,  and  the  shock  of  armies,  the 
neighing  of  chargers,  and  the  blast  of  bugles,  shall  be  heard  no  more. 
But  the  slender  shoot  of  other  times  has  become  a  giant  in  the  world's 
extended  forest.  Its  roots  have  sunk  down  deep  in  earth,  its  top  has 
stretched  beyond  the  clouds,  and  its  branches  have  spanned  the  conti- 
nent. Its  form  is  graceful,  its  foliage  is  bright  and  beautiful,  and  its 
fruits  have  carried  gladness  to  every  quarter  of  the  globe.  The  op- 
pressed of  other  lands,  finding,  like  the  wearied  dove,  no  rest  amid  the 
old  world's  desolation,  have  conquered  the  holiest  instincts  of  the 
soul,  the  love  of  early  home,  of  the  birth-place,  of  the  streams  of 
childhood,  or  the  graves  of  their  beloved  dead,  and  have  songht  a 
gathering  place  of  affection  under  its  protecting  branches.  Here  they 
have  reposed  in  peace  and  plenty,  and  fancied  security,  from  the  strug- 
gles which  cursed  their  native  land.  Xo  groans  of  oppression  are 
heard  beneath  it,  no  deadly  malaria  sickens  in  its  shade,  but  its  shel- 
tering influences,  refreshing  as  the  dews,  and  genial  as  the  sunshine, 
have  blessed  and  cherished  all. 

Ah!  what  government  has  so  protected  its  children,  so  ennobled 
man,  so  elevated  woman,  so  inspired  youth,  so  given  hope  and  promise 
to  budding  childhood,  so  smoothed  the  descent  of  dreary  age:  ha3  so 
guarded  the  freedom  of  conscience,  so  diffused  intelligence,  so  fostered 
letters  and  the  arts,  so  secured  to  all  "  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness?"    The  triumphs  of  freedom,  moral  and  material,  under  this 


4 


THE  UNION. 


new  dispensation,  have  excelled  the  hope  of  the  most  sanguine.  From 
three,  our  population  has  increased  to  thirty  millions;  from  thirteen 
feeble  colonies  along  the  Atlantic  slope,  to  thirty-four  powerful  States, 
with  numerous  others  in  the  process  of  formation,  and  on  their  way 
for  admittance  to  the  Union.  Two  strong  European  powers  have 
withdrawn  from  the  continent,  leaving"  us  the  fruits  of  their  posses- 
sions. Great  and  prosperous  states,  and  cities  and  towns,  teeming 
with  the  elements  of  enterprise  and  social  culture,  and  abounding  with 
institutions  of  religion  and  learning,  have  arisen  as  if  by  magic,  on  the 
far  distant  Pacitic,  where  we  have  only  paused,  lest  to  cross  it  might 
put  us  on  our  return  voyage,  and  bring  us  nearer  home  ;  aud  the  river 
which  the  ambition  of  our  early  history  essayed  to  fix  for  our  western 
limit,  now  runs  nearest  our  eastern  boundary.  Numerous  aboriginal 
nations  have  been  displaced  before  the  prevailing  current  of  our  arts 
and  arms  and  free  principles,  and  whoever  listens  may  hear  the  pat- 
tering feet  of  coining  millions;  and  whoever  will  look  back  upon  the 
past  and  forward  upon  the  future,  must  see  that  there  are  further 
races  for  us  to  civilize,  educate  and  absorb,  and  that  new  triumphs 
await  us  in  the  cause  of  progress  and  civilization.  Thus  have  we 
passed  from  infancy  to  childhood,  from  childhood  to  robust  and  buoy- 
ant youth,  and  from  youth  to  vigorous  manhood ;  and  with  an  over- 
growth so  superabundant,  we  should  neither  be  surprised  nor  alarm- 
ed that  we  have  provoked  foreign  envy  as  well  as  unwilling  admira- 
tion— that  cankers  of  discontent  are  gnawing  at  our  heartstrings,  and 
that  we  are  threatened  with  cheeks,  and  trials  and  reverses. 

The  continent  of  North  America  presents  to  the  observing  mind  one 
great  geographical  system,  every  portion  of  which,  under  the  present 
facilities  for  intercommunication,  may  be  more  accessible  to  every 
other  than  were  the  original  States  to  each  other  at  the  time  the  Con- 
federacy was  formed.  It  is  destined  at  no  distant  day  to  become 
permanently  the  commercial  centre,  when  France  and  England  will 
pay  tribute  to  New  York,  and  the  Rothschilds  and  the  Barings  will  sell 
exchange  on  Wall  Street  at  a  premium  ;  and  it  requires  no  romantic 
stretch  of  the  imagination  to  believe  that  the  time  is  at  hand  when 
man,  regarding  his  own  wants,  yielding  to  his  own  impulses,  and  act- 
ing in  obedience  to  laws  more  potent  than  the  laws  of  a  blind  ambition, 
will  ordain  that  the  continent  shall  be  united  in  political  as  well  as  nat- 
ural bonds,  and  form  but  one  great  Union — a  free,  self-governed,  Con- 
federated Republic,  exhibiting  to  an  admiring  world  the  results  which 
have  been  achieved  for  man's  freedom  and  elevation  in  this  western 
hemisphere. 

In  ordinary  times,  a  correct  taste  would  suggest  that,  upon  occasions 


THE  UNION. 


5 


like  the  present,  all  subjects  of  political  concern,  however  measured 
by  moderation,  and  seasoned  with  philosophy  and  historic  truth,  should 
be  left  for  discussion  to  some  appropriate  forum,  and  those  only  con- 
sidered which  are  more  in  sympathy  with  the  objects  of  the  societies 
of  Amherst;  but  when  the  glorious  edifice  which  protects  and  shel- 
ters all  is  threatened  with  the  fate  of  the  Ephesian  dome,  the  patriotic 
scholar,  before  he  sits  down  to  his  favorite  banquet,  will  raise  his  voice 
and  nerve  his  arm,  to  aid  in  extinguishing  the  flames,  that  he  may  pre- 
serve to  posterity  institutions  without  which  all  the  learning  of  the 
schools  would  be  but  mockery,  and  give  place  to  violence,  and  igno- 
rance, and  barbarism.  This  is  emphatically  a  utilitarian  and  practical 
age,  and  when  the  foundations  upon  which  the  ark  of  our  political 
safety  rest  are  threatened,  rebellion  is  wafted  on  every  breeze,  and  the 
rude  din  of  arms  greets  us  on  either  hand,  menacing  our  very  exist- 
ence as  a  great  and  prosperous  people,  letters  may  sympathize  with 
the  danger,  and  become  silent  in  our  midst  as  well  as  laws. 

Bad  government  is  the  enemy  of  knowledge.  Under  its  destructive 
reign  learning  is  neglected,  ignorance  is  honored  and  commended,  and 
free  opinion  is  persecuted  as  an  enemy  of  State.  Its  schools  are  mili- 
tary despotisms,  and  the  dungeon,  the  rack,  and  the  gibbet  are  its 
teachers.  Under  its  haughty  sway  the  energies  of  mind  are  bowed 
and  broken,  the  spirit  subdued  and  restrained  in  its  search  for  suste- 
nance, and  literature  and  the  sciences  droop,  languish  and  die.  This 
glorious  Union  is  our  world;  while  we  maintain  its  integrity,  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth,  the  lofty  and  the  low,  must  recognize  our  supre- 
macy, and  pay  us  homage  ;  disjointed,  forming  two  or  more  fragmen- 
tary Republics,  we  shall  deserve  and  receive  less  consideration  than  the 
States  of  Barbary ;  and  now  that  we  are  threatened  with  destruction, 
let  us  as  one  people,  from  the  North  and  the  South,  the  East  and  the 
"West,  rising  above  the  narrow  instincts  of  parties  and  associations, 
relume  our  lamps  of  liberty,  as  the  vestals  replenished  their  sacred 
fire,  though  not  extinguished,  from  the  rays  of  the  morning  sun.  Let 
us  renew  our  covenant,  and  swear  upon  the  holy  altars  of  our  faith  to 
maintain  and  defend  it  and  its  glorious  emblem,  the  stars  and  stripes, 
so  replete  with  pleasing  memories ;  and  if  there  are  any  who  distrust 
their  own  firmness,  and  fear  they  may  be  seduced  or  may  fall  out  by 
the  wayside,  or  be  frightened  from  their  purpose,  let  them,  like  Her- 
nando Cortez,  burn  the  means  of  retreat  behind  them,  that  they  may 
'  remain  faithful  to  the  end. 

When  the  sunlight  of  the  last  Autumn  was  supplanted  by  the  pre- 
monitions of  Winter,  by  drifting  clouds  and  eddying  leaves,  and  the 
flight  of  birds  to  a  milder  clime,  our  land  was  emphatically  blessed. 


G 


THE     0 R 1 O  H . 


We  were  at  peace  with  all  the  powers  of  the  earth,  and  enjoying  un- 
disturbed domestic  repose.  A  beneficent  Providence  had  smiled  upon 
the  labors  of  the  husbandman,  and  our  granaries  groaned  under  the 
burden  of  their  golden  treasures.  Industry  found  labor  and  compen- 
sation, and  the  poor  man's  latch  was  never  raised  except  in  the  sacred 
name  of  friendship,  or  by  the  authority  of  law.  No  taxation  consu- 
med, no  destitution  appalled,  no  sickness  wasted,  but  health  and  joy 
beamed  from  every  face.  The  fruits  of  toil,  from  the  North  and  the 
•South,  the  East  and  the  West,  were  bringing  to  our  feet  the  contribu- 
tions of  the  earth,  and  trade,  which  for  a  time  had  fallen  back  to  re- 
cover breath  from  previous  over-exertion,  had  resumed  her  place 
"  where  merchants  most  do  congregate."  The  land  was  replete  with 
gladness,  and  vocal  with  thanksgivings  Of  its  sons  and  daughters,  upon 
the  vast  prairies  of  the  West,  up  its  sunny  hill-slopes,  and  through  its 
smiling  valleys,  along  its  majestic  rivers,  and  down  its  meandering 
streamlets,  and  its  institutions  of  religion,  and  learning,  and  charity, 
echoed  back  the  sound  : 

14  But,  bringing  up  the  rear  of  this  bright  host, 
A  spirit  of  a  different  aspect  waved 
His  winirs.  like  thunder-clouds  above  some  coast, 
"Whose  barren  beach  with  frequent  wrecks  is  paved. 
His  brow  was  like  the  deep,  when  tempest-tossed  ; 
Fierce  and  unfathomable  thoughts  engraved 
Eternal  wrath  on  his  Immortal  face, 
And  where  he  gazed,  a  gloom  pervaded  space." 

Yes,  in  the  moment  of  our  country's  triumph,  in  the  plenitude  of  its 
pride,  in  the  heyday  of  its  hope,  and  in  the  fulness  of  its  beauty,  the 
serpent  which  crawled  into  Eden,  and  whispered  his  glozing  story  of 
delusion  to  the  unsuspecting  victim  of  his  guile,  unable  to  rise  from 
the  original  curse  which  rests  upon  him,  sought  to  coil  his  snaky  folds 
around  it,  and  sting  it  to  the  heart.  From  the  arts  and  the  enjoy  : 
nients  of  peace  we  have  been  plunged  deep  in  the  horrors  of  civil 
war.  Our  once  happy  land  resounds  with  the  clangor  of  rebellious 
arms,  and  is  polluted  with  the  dead  bodies  of  its  children,  some  seek- 
ing to  destroy,  some  struggling  to  maintain,  the  common  beneficent 
Government  of  all,  as  established  by  our  fathers.  This  effort  to  di- 
vide the  Union  and  subvert  the  Government,  whatever  may  be  the 
pretence,  is,  in  fact,  a  daring  and  dangerous  crusade  against  free  insti- 
tutions. It  should  be  opposed  by  the  whole  power  of  a  patriotic  peo- 
ple, and  crushed  beyond  the  prospect  of  a  resurrection ;  and  to  attain 
that  end,  the  Government  should  be  sustained  in  every  just  and  rea- 
sonable effort  to  maintain  the  authority  and  integrity  of  the  nation ; 
to  uphold  and  vindicate  the  supremacy  of  the  Constitution  and  the 


THE  UNION. 


7 


majesty  of  the  laws,  by  all  lawful  means;  not  grudgingly  sustained, 
with  one  hesitating,  shullling,  unwilling  step  forward  to  save  appear- 
ance, and  two  stealthy  ones  backward  to  secure  a  seasonable  retreat; 
nor  with  the  shallow  craft  of  a  mercenary  politician,  calculating  chan- 
ces and  balancing  between  expedients,  but  with  the  generous  alacrity 
and  energy  which  have  a  meaning,  and  prove  a  loyal,  patriotic,  and 
willing  heart.  It  is  not  a  question  of  Administration,  but  of  a  Gov- 
ernment— not  of  politics,  but  of  patriotism — not  of  policy,  but  of 
principles  which  uphold  us  all — a  question  too  great  for  party — be- 
tween the  Constitution  and  the  laws  on  one  hand  and  misrule  and 
anarchy  on  the  other — between  existence  and  destruction. 

The  Union  was  formed  under  the  Constitution  by  an  association  of 
equals  ;  like  the  temple  of  Diana,  every  pillai  which  upholds  its  arches 
was  the  gift  of  a  sovereign  ;  not  a  sovereign  created  by  man's  usurpa- 
tion, and  serving  upon  gala-days  to  exhibit  to  plundered  subjects  the 
diadems,  and  diamonds,  and  gorgeous  trappings  of  royalty,  but  of  a 
sovereign  people,  created  in  the  image  of  their  Maker,  and  bearing  in 
their  bosoms  the  crown  jewels  of  immortality.  In  the  administration 
of  its  government,  and  in  the  relation  of  its  members  with  each  other, 
each  and  every  one  is  entitled  to  complete  equality  ;  the  right  to  enjoy 
unmolested  all  the  privileges  of  the  compact,  in  their  full  length  and 
breadth,  in  letter  and  in  spirit. 

Whenever  and  wherever  there  has  been  a  departure  from  this  plain 
and  just  stipulation,  in  theory  or  in  practice,  in  either  section,  or 
where  either  has  employed  means  or  agencies  calculated  to  disturb  or 
irritate,  or  annoy  the  other,  there  has  been  error  and  cause  of  griev- 
ance which  demanded  redress  and  restitution  ;  and  when  rebellion  has 
sheathed  its  sword,  and  lowered  its  front,  and  the  obligations  of  the 
Constitution  are  again  recognized  by  all  who  owe  it  obedience,  may 
every  true  friend  of  the  Constitution  and  Union  unite  in  a  common 
purpose  and  an  earnest  effort,  in  seeing  that  there  remains  no  just 
cause  of  complaint  unredressed  in  any  portion  of  the  confederacy. 
But  there  has  been  no  grievance  alleged,  which,  if  true,  could  justify 
armed  rebellion  and  disunion.  The  Constitution,  with  defects  and 
imperfections  from  which  human  creations  are  inseparable,  bears  upon 
its  bosom  remedies  for  every  abuse  which  is  practised  in  its  name,  and 
power  to  punish  every  violation  of  its  salutary  provisions ;  and  those 
who  are  unable  to  "bear  the  ills  they  have,"  should  invoke  its  spirit, 
rather  than  "fly  to  others  which  they  know  not  of."  And  the  Gov- 
ernment, though  it  has  by  no  means  been  exempt  from  mal-adminis- 
tration  throughout  its  eventful  history,  has  been  less  arraigned  for  in- 
justice than  any  government  on  earth.    And  time  and  patience,  and  a 


8 


T  FI  E  UNION. 


I  sense  of  popular  justice,  the  ebbs  and  flows  and  currents  of  opinion, 
would  have  proved  a  corrective  of  all  serious  causes  of  disturbance. 
But  efforts  to  divide  the  Union  and  destroy  the  Government,  beside 

I  'being  intrinsically  atrocious,  instead  of  correcting  the  alleged  griev- 
fances,  are  calculated  to  aggravate  them  more  than  a  hundredfold,  and, 

,  if  successful,  to  close  a  day  of  humanities,  hope  and  promise,  in  this 
refuge  of  liberty,  in  blood  and  darkness.    No  one  denies  to  an  op- 

I  pressed  people  the  right  of  revolution,  as  the  last  dreadful  resort  of 
man  seeking  emancipation,  when  all  other  etforts  have  proved  una- 
vailing— never  to  be  entered  upon  except  as  a  terrific  necessity.  But 
Secession  i-  a  bold  and  bald  and  wicked  imposture,  with  its  authors — 

Ha  chimera,  an  illusion  and  cheat  with  those  who  are  betrayed  into  its 
support,  and  it  exhibits  the  worst  features  of  the  basest  despotism 
in  enforcing  obedience  to  its  reign  of  terror.  It  is  but  a  synonym 
for  Disunion  by  violence,  under  the  pretence  of  rights  reserved  to 

,  States,  and  must  have  sprung,  like  the  voluptuous  goddess,  from  froth, 
so  little  of  right,  or  reason,  or  justice,  or  remedy,  or  good  sense,  is 
there  in  it,  or  around  it.  or  about  it;  though,  like  the  contents  of  her 
mystic  girdle,  it  promised  to  its  votaries  a  surfeit  of  hidden  pleasures. 
The  attempt  to  liken  this  wicked  and  corrupt  rebellion  to  the  Ameri- 
can revolution,  requires  an  assurance  of  brass  sufficient  to  reconstruct 

I  the  Colossus  of  Rhodes.    "While  the  Colonies  were  petitioning  for  a 

\i  redress  of  grievances,  war  was  precipitated  upon  them  by  the  British 
Crown,  to  compel  their  submission  and  silence.  While  Congress  was 
canvassing  the  alleged  grievances  of  a  portion  of  the  States  of  the 

!  Confederacy,  and  while  its  legislation  upon  the  subject  of  the  Terri- 
tories was  proceeding  in  harmony  with  their  professed  wishes,  mem- 

i  bers  representing  such  aggrieved  States  withdrew,  and  precipitated 
Disunion  in  hot  haste,  before  the  result  of  proposed  conciliatory 

I  efforts  could  be  ascertained,  as  though  they  feared  if  they  awaited  the 
development  of  events  in  progress,  they  might  be  more  seriously  ag- 

*  grieved  by  a  redress  of  grievances !  The  Colonies  had  neither  sup- 
;  port  nor  sympathy,  nor  representation  in  any  department  of  the  Brit- 

•  ish  Government,  but  they  persevered  in  their  efforts  to  obtain  justice 
and  recognition  so  long  as  a  single  ray  of  hope  gave  promise,  and 
until  they  were  silenced  by  the  presence  of  British  troops,  and  were 
compelled  to  submit  to  slavery  and  degradation,  or  appeal  to  the  last 
refuge  of  an  oppressed  people — the  arbitrament  of  the  battle-field. 
They  claimed  no  false  or  fabricated  reading  of  the  British  Constitu- 
tion, which  enabled  them  to  sever  their  connection  with  the  crown, 
and  avoid  the  responsibility  of  revolution,  but  they  manfully  took 
their  stand  upon  the  ultima  ratio  of  nations.  They  received  a  world's 


THE     UNION.  9 

sympathy,  because  their  revolt  was  an  imperious  necessity,  and  Heav- 
en smiled  upon  their  efforts  for  deliverance  and  independence.  But  if 
they  had  connived  at  the  accession  of  the  seltish,  perverse,  and  bigot- 
ed George  to  the  crown,  that  they  might  be  able  to  complain  of  the 
reigning  monarch,  and,  above  all,  if  they  had  controlled  the  ministry, 
and  held  a  majority  in  Parliament,  and  had  then  vacated  their  seats, 
and  yielded  up  the  power  to  their  opponents,  and  had  cried  out  op- 
pression to  cover  schemes  of  political  ambition,  they  would  have  both 
deserved  and  received,  instead  of  sympathy,  or  confidence,  or  counte- 
nance, the  scorn  and  contempt  of  Christendom. 

The  Declaration  of  American  Independence,  the  modern  Magna 
Charta  of  human  rights,  evolved  the  idea  so  cheering  to  the  cause  of 
Freedom  and  yet  so  startling  to  monarchy,  that  Governments  derived1 
their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed,  and  that  although 
Governments  long  established  should  not  be  changed  for  light  and 
transient  causes,  yet  when  they  become  subversive  of  the  ends  for 
which  they  were  established,  and  "when  a  long  train  of  abuses  and 
usurpations,  pursuing  invariably  the  same  object,  evinced  the  design 
to  reduce  them  under  absolute  despotism,  it  was  their  right,  their  duty, 
to  throw  off  such  Government,  and  to  provide  new  guards  for  their 
future  security."  But  it  nowhere  declares  that  a  knot  of  conspiring 
politicians,  foiled  in  their  schemes  of  ambition  and  plunder,  and  chafing 
under  disappointment  like  a  tiger  cheated  in  his  foray,  may,  without, 
the  popular  support  or  sympathy,  but  in  defiance  of  both,  assert  that) 
the  election  of  a  political  opponent  whose  success  they  might  have 
prevented,  is  a  sufficient  cause  of  rebellion,  or  that  a  party  or  an 
interest,  which  has  the  majority  in  both  branches  of  the  Representative! 
Government,  and  is  protected  by  the  opinions  of  the  judiciary  of  thej 
nation,  can  withdraw,  so  as  to  give  its  opponents  the  power,  and  then 
set  on  foot  a  rebellion,  and  seek  to  destroy  an  edifice  which  stands  as, 
the  last  best  hopes  of  man,  because  they  fear  they  may  be  visited  with 
political  oppression !  Those  who  practise  such  shallow  devices  before 
the  world,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century,  should  remem- 
ber that  they  but  copy  the  stupid  instincts  of  the  bird  that  buries  its 
head  in  the  sand,  and  then  indulges  the  conceit  that  its  ungainly  body 
is  concealed  also.  Whatever  causes  of  disturbance  and  disaffection 
existed  between  the  North  and  South,  the  public  judgment  has  ren- 
dered its  verdict  upon  abundant  evidence,  and  with  extraordinary 
unanimity,  deciding  that  such  formed  a  remote  and  feeble  element  in 
inducing  disunion,  but  that  it  was  a  foregone  conclusion  with  those 
who  urged  it  forward,  darkly  designed  and  deliberately  determined, 
for  the  purpose  of  securing  personal  eclat  and  self-aggrandizement,! 


10 


THE  UNION. 


.  rather  than  that  of  securing  rights  and  privileges  to  an  oppressed  sec- 
I  tion  of  people. 

f,  "Order  is  Heaven's  first  law." 

I  — it  is  coeval  with  being.  No  people,  civilized  or  savage,  ever  existed 
j  without  a  government  for  their  guidance  and  regulation.    Beasts  of 

'  j  the  field  and  forest,  birds  of  the  air,  fishes  of  the  sea,  and  insects  which 

■"j inhabit  all,  form  their  colonics  and  associations,  and  arrange  them- 
selves in  obedience  to  some  recognized  rule,  and  even  inanimate 

L  objects  obey  with  unerring  certainty  the  hand  which  guides  them. 
»  Nor  do  the  lights  of  history,  the  lessons  of  experience,  or  the  dicker- 
ing shadows  of  tradition,  tell  of  a  Government  which  voluntarily  and 

rnl  by  design  planted  the  seeds  of  its  own  decay  in  its  bosom,  or  provided 
for  its  own  destruction  and  overthrow,  by  committing  its  life  and 
^  destiny  to  other  hands.  The  Constitution  forming  the  Union  and 
,  erecting  its  Government  was  the  emanation  of  the  people  of  the  United 

'  {  States.  It  was  adopted,  as  declared  in  its  preamble,  ato  form  a  more 
1  perfect  union,  to  establish  justice,  insure  domestic  tranquillity,  provide 

I  ]  for  the  common  defence,  to  promote  the  general  welfare,  and  to  secure 

|  » the  blessings  of  liberty  to  the  people  who  ordained  it,  and  their  pos- 
>  terity."  But  if  the  instrument  which  formed  the  more  perfect  Union 
I  with  becoming  solemnity  contemplated  its  dismemberment  and  over- 
]  throw  by  the  withdrawal  of  all  or  any  of  the  States  therefrom  at  the 
(  pleasure  of  their  capricious  politicians,  it  remained  a  most  imperfect 
(  and  pitiable  Union  still.  If  the  justice  it  established  was  but  tempo- 
,  rary,  if  the  domestic  tranquillity  it  insured  was  for  the  time  being,  if 
1  the  common  defence  it  provided  for  was  until  some  of  the  States 
^  should  withdraw  from  the  Union  and  make  war  upon  it,  and  if  the 
-  blessings  of  liberty  it  secured  to  posterity  were  upon  condition  that 
(  those  who  secured  them  should  not  wish  to  subvert  the  liberty  thus 
i  secured  by  armed  force,  then,  our  boasted  Constitution,  which  has 

,  been  hailed  throughout  the  earth  as  one  of  the  wisest  emanations  of 
j  man,  and  enjoys  a  world-wide  fame  for  its  humane  provisions  and 
j  lofty  conceptions  of  statesmanship,  should  be  scouted  as  a  fraud,  a 
(  delusion,  and  an  imposture,  possessing  much  more  sound  than  sub- 
]  stance,  and  carrying  by  design,  in  its  own  bosom,  the  seeds  of  its 
(  dissolution.  But  no  sentence,  or  word,  or  syllable,  can  be  found  in  the 
]  Federal  Constitution  sustaining  an  idea  at  once  so  puerile  and  mon- 
f  strous.  It  provides  for  the  admission  to  the  Union  of  new  States,  but 
|  not  the  withdrawal  therefrom  of  those  already  members.  To  gain 
j  such  admission  the  States  must  apply  to  Congress,  with  a  constitution 
1  Republican  inform;  and  upon  an  act  of  Congress  authorizing  such 
admission,  duly  approved  and  signed  by  the  President  of  the  United 


THE  UNION. 


11 


States,  such  State  becomes  a  member  of  the  Confederacy.  If  one 
State,  being  thus  admitted,  can  withdraw  at  pleasure,  by  passing  an 
act  or  ordinance  of  Secession,  and  cancel  a  solemn  covenant  by  one 
party  alone,  which  it  required  two  to  make,  and  in  which  both  remain 
interested,  any  or  all  may  do  the  same,  and  the  rich  harvest  of  liberty 
and  its  attending  blessings,  which  our  forefathers  professed  to  secure 
to  posterity,  may  prove  a  barren  and  a  blasted  field,  when  those  for 
whom  it  was  designed  prepare  to  reap  their  inheritance. 

It  is  a  familiar  principle  ot  law  that  a  repealing  statute,  itself 
repealed,  revives  and  puts  in  force  the  former  law.  So  long,  then,  as 
Congress  permits  its  several  acts  for  the  admission  of  the  revolted 
States  to  the  Union  to  stand,  according  to  Secession  law  and  logiej 
these  States  can  go  out  and  in  at  pleasure,  and  if  they  may  withdraw 
by  an  ordinance  of  their  own,  by  the  same  rale  Congress  may  expej 
them  by  repealing  its  acts  of  admission.  To  go  out  of  the  Union  ad 
they  insist,  they  have  only  to  pass  an  act  or  ordinance  of  Secession 
without  the  knowledge,  privity,  or  consent  of  the  Government  of  the 
Union.  To  return,  they  would  have  only  to  repeal  it.  They  can 
then  go  out  when  it  suits  principle,  and  return  when  it  favors  interest; 
or  they  can  alternate,  liRe  migratory  birds  with  the  seasons,  hatching 
Disunion  in  the  Confederacy  and  rearing  it  without,  and  as  thus  fai 
its  managers  have,  in  most  instances,  generously  relieved  the  people 
of  participation  in  the  matter,  the  destruction  of  old  governments  and 
the  erection  of  new  ones  would  occasion  little  inconvenience. 

Jove,  according  to  mythology,  and  that  is  an  authority  not  easily 
refuted,  leaped  fully  armed  from  the  brain  of  the  goddess ;  but  strange] 
still,  the  founders  of  the  Government  of  the  Southern  Confederacy 
leaped  fully  armed  with  high  sounding  titles  of  official  station  froia 
their  own,  and  brought  their  Government  with  them ;  an  emanation 
neither  suggested  nor  approved  by  the  popular  voice,  but  the  creatior, 
of  those  who,  like  the  renowned  Peter  Brush,  wanted  "something  to 
have  rather  than  something  to  do,"  and  almost  universally  repudiatecj 
wherever  opportunity  has  been  afforded.  A  Government  purporting 
to  be  of  the  people,  without  permitting  them  to  have  a  voice  in  con] 
structing  it ;  without  a  "  local  habitation"  of  departments  in  thej 
abstract,  and  offices  with  more  titles  than  duties  ;  a  President  without 
an  election,  a  Treasury  without  money  or  sources  of  revenue,  a  j^avj 
without  ships,  a  Post-Office  without  mails,  a  Minister  of  foreign  rela-t 
tions  whose  relations  abroad  decline  to  acknowledge  the  connection; 
a  Department  of  the  Interior  representing  a  nature-abhorred  vacuum, 
an  Attorney-General  without  law,  and  a  Patent-Office  which,  in  th< 
absence  of  other  business,  should  issue  letters  securing  the  exclusive 


1  ±  T  II  E     C  N  ION. 

I  right  of  this  new-fledged  Confederacy  to  those  who  invented  it,  for  its 
extraordinary  novelty  rather  than  its  acknowledged  utility ;  that  it 
I  may  be  preserved  to  after  times  in  the  world's  curiosity  shop,  with 
:  Law's  scheme  of  hanking,  the  moon-hoax  of  Locke,  the  messages  of 
'the  President  and  Queen  over  the  submarine  telegraph,  and  Redheif- 
fer's  perpetual  motion. 

I  The  advocates  of  the  right  of  Secession,  in  claiming  that  a  State  after 
its  solemn  admission,  and  while  enjoying  the  protection  and  partici- 
pating in  the  fruits  of  the  Union,  may  at  its  pleasure,  and  by  its  own 
act,  secede,  to  be  consistent,  should  hold  that  a  nation  may  at  pleasure 
withdraw  from  its  treaty  obligations  without  previous  provision  or 
consent  of  the  other  side;  that  one  who  has  conveyed  an  estate  and 
received  the  consideration,  may  resume  it  when  it  suits  his  neces- 
sity or  convenience,  that  the  husband  or  wife  may  repudiate  the 
marriage  obligation  without  detriment,  or  a  disregard  of  marital  faith, 
and  in  short,  that  a  covenant  made  by  two  parties,  and  in  which  both 
arc  interested,  may  be  cancelled  by  one. 

The  right  thus  to  secede  must  rest  upon  a  political  free  love,  where 
States,  unequally  united,  may,  on  discovering  their  true  affinities, 
dissolve  the  first  condition  and  become  sealed  in  confederate  wedlock 
to  their  chosen  companions  during  pleasure,  and  the  authors  of  the 
discovery  should  go  down  to  posterity  as  the  Brigham  Youngs  of 
modern  confederacies. 

Most  events  of  modern  times  find  their  parallel  in  early  history,  and 
this  attempt  to  extemporize  a  government  upon  the  elements  of  politi- 
cal disquietude,  so  that,  like  sets  of  dollar  jewelry,  every  person  can 
have  one  of  his  own,  does  not  form  an  exceptional  case.  When  David 
swayed  the  sceptre  of  Judea,  the  comely  Absalom,  a  bright  star  of  the 
morning,  whose  moral  was  obscured  by  his  intellectual  light,  finding 
such  amusements  as  the  slaying  of  his  brother  and  burning  the  barley 
fields  of  Joab  too  tame  for  his  ambition,  conceived  the  patriotic  idea 
of  driving  his  father  from  the  throne,  of  usurping  the  regal  authority, 
and  relieving  the  people  unasked  from  the  oppressions  under  which  he 
had  discovered  they  were  groaning.  Like  modern  demagogues  he 
commenced  with  disaffection,  advised  all  who  came  with  complaints 
that,  from  royal  inattention,  no  one  was  deputed  to  hear  them,  and  in 
greeting  those  who  passed  the  king's  gate  with  a  kiss,  that  he  might 
steal  away  their  hearts,  he  lamented  that  he  was  not  a  judge  in  the 
land,  so  that  anyone  who  had  a  cause  or  suit,  might  come  to  him,  and 
he  would  do  him  justice.  Under  pretence  of  going  to  Hebron,  the 
royal  residence  in  the  early  reign  of  David,  to  pay  his  vows,  for  he  was 
conscientious  in  the  matter  of  vows  as  Herod,  he  raised  a  rebellious 


T  HE  UNION. 


13 


army,  and  sent  spies  through  the  land  to  proclaim  him  kjng  and  reign- 
ing in  Hebron,  when  the  trumpet  should  sound  upon  the  air.  The 
conspiracy,  says  sacred  history,  was  strong,  and  the  rebellion  was  so 
artfully  contrived,  so  stealthily  inaugurated,  that  it  gave  high  promise 
of  success.  The  king,  although  in  obedience  to  the  stern  dictates  of 
duty,  he  sent  forth  his  armies  by  hundreds  and  by  thousands  to  assert 
and  maintain  his  prerogative,  exhibited  the  heart  of  a  good  prince) 
and  an  affectionate  father,  in  beseeching  them  for  his  sake,  to  deal  gently 
with  the  young  man,  even  Absalom  ;  and  when  the  conflict  was  over, 
the  first  inquiry  with  anxious  solicitude,  was,  is  the  young  man  safe? 
And  yet  this  ambitious  rebel,  in  raising  a  numerous  and  powerful  army, 
and  endeavoring  to  wrest  the  government  from  the  rightful  monarch, 
would  doubtless  have  claimed,  according  to  modern  acceptation,  that 
he  was  acting  from  high  convictions  of  duty,  from  a  powerful  necessity, 
and  fighting  purely  in  self-defence.  And  when  the  great  battle  was  set 
in  array  in  the  wood  of  Ephraim,  where  twenty  thousand  were  slaugh- 
tered, and  the  wood  devoured  that  day  more  than  the  sword  devour- 
ed, there  was  evidently  nothing  that  he  so  much  desired,  when  he  saw 
exposure  and  overthrow  inevitable,  as  to  be  let  alone.  But  that  short 
struggle  subdued  the  aspirations,  and  closed  forever  the  ignoble  career 
of  this  ambitious  leader  in  Israel — a  warning  to  those  who  would  be- 
come judges  before  their  time,  or  be  made  kings  upon  the  sound  of  a 
trumpet,  blown  by  their  own  directions.  Let  all  such  remember  the 
wood  of  Ephraim,  the  wide-spreading  branches  of  the  oak,  the  painful 
suspense  which  came  over  the  author  of  the  rebellion,  the  darts  of  Joab, 
and  the  dark  pit  into  which  this  prince  of  the  royal  household  was 
cast  for  his  folly,  his  madness,  and  treachery. 

And  when  those  charged  with  the  administration  of  our  government 
send  forth  its  armies  by  hundreds  and  by  thousands  to  maintain  and  : 
vindicate  the  Constitution  and  Union  of  our  fathers,  may  they  imitate 
the  example  of  the  wise  king  of  Judea,  and  beseech  the  captains  of 
the  hosts  to  deal  gently  with  the  young  Absalom  of  Secession,  and  by 
all  means  inquire  for  their  safety  when  their  armies  have  been  com- 
pletely routed,  and  the  rebellion  put  down  forever. 

Secession,  either  peaceable  or  violent,  if  crowned  with  complete  suc- 
cess, can  furnish  no  remedy  for  sectional  grievances,  real  or  imaginary. 
It  would  be  as  destructive  of  Southern  as  of  Northern  interests,  for 
both  are  alike  concerned  in  the  maintenance  and  prosperity  of  the 
Union.  It  would  increase  every  evil,  aggravate  every  cause  of  dis- 
turbance, and  render  every  acute  complaint  hopelessly  chronic.  Look 
at  miserable,  misguided,  misgoverned  Mexico,  and  receive  a  lesson  of 
instruction.    She  has  been  seceding,  and  dividing,  and  pronouncing, 


T  H  K  INION. 


and  fighting  for  her  rights,  and  in  the  self-defence  of  aggressive  lead- 
ers, from  the  day  of  her  nominal  independence,  and  she  has  reaped 
an  abundant  harve-t  of  degradation  and  shame.  No  President  of  the 
Republic  has  ever  served  the  full  term  for  which  he  was  elected,  and 
generally,  had  his  successor  had  more  fitness  than  himself  it  would 
have  occasioned  no  detriment.  When  the  population  of  the  United 
iStates  was  three  millions  that  of  Mexico  was  live,  and  when  that  of 
the  United  States  is  thirty,  the  population  of  Mexico  is  only  eight ;  and 
while  the  United  States  has  gained  t  he  highest  rank  among  the  nations 
of  the  earth,  by  common  consent,  Mexico  has  descended  to  the  lowest, 
lier  people  have  been  the  dupes  and  slaves  and  footballs  of  aspiring 
leaders,  mad  with  a  reckless  and  mean  ambition,  inflated  with  self- 
importance  and  conceit,  and  destitute  of  patriotism  or  statesmanship. 
Hut  as  a  (down  with  a  pick  axe  can  demolish  the  choicest  productions 
of  art,  so  can  the  demagogue  overthrow  the  loftiest  institutions  of 
wisdom. 

Thus  has  poor,  despised,  dwarfed,  and  down-trodden  Mexico  been 
crushed  forever,  under  the  iron  heel  of  her  own  insane  despoilers;  a 
memorable  but  melancholy  illustration  of  a  people  without  a  fixed  and 
stable  government;  the  sport  of  the  profligate  and  designing,  the  vic- 
tims of  fraud  and  violence. 

Southern  States  along  the  free  border  had  felt  most  seriously,  all  the 
injury  and  irritation  produced  by  inharmonious  and  conflicting  rela- 
tions between  them  and  their  brethren  of  the  North,  and  yet  the  peo- 
ple of  these  States  shrunk  from  the  remedy  of  secession  as  from  the 
bottomless  pit.  They  saw  in  it  nothing  but  swift  and  hopeless  de- 
struction, and  believed  that  the  desire  for  disunion  had  originated  more 
in  ultra-ambitious  schemes  than  in  a  determination  to  protect  their 
peculiar  system  of  domestic  servitude  from  encroachment.  But  States 
with  which  the  heresy  originated,  and  had  been  cherished,  had  long 
revelled  in  dream}' theories  and  vague  notions  of  benefits  which  would 
flow  to  them  from  a  dissevered  Union,  and  madly  hastened  to  destroy 
the  fabric  of  their  fathers  before  it  could  be  rescued.  The  most  sordid 
passions  of  man,  seeking  indulgence  of  their  appetites  in  the  promised 
land  of  secession,  lent  their  absorbing  stimulants  to  urge  forward  the 
catastrophe.  Avarice  clanked  her  chains  for  the  necessitous  and  mer- 
cenary, and  fortunes  sprung  up  unbidden,  on  either  hand,  to  greet 
them,  seeking  masters  and  service.  Ports  and  harbors,  and  marts  and 
entrepots  rushed  in  upon  a  heated  imagination,  as  they  heard  in  the 
distance  the  knell  of  the  Union  tolling;  they  beckoned,  and  the  con- 
tributions of  a  world's  commerce  were  poured  into  their  lap  by  direct 
trade,  and  universal  expansion  came  over  all  the  votaries  of  disunion, 


THE  UNION*. 


15 


as  if  by  magic.  "  The  three-hooped  pot  had  ten  hoops,"  and  what 
was  "  Greek  creek  once  was  Tiber  now."  Mammon  erected  his  court, 
and  they  heard  the  clinking  of  gold  in  the  world's  exchequer,  as  it  ac- 
cumulated at  the  counters  of  their  exchange.  Ambition  kindled  her 
torch,  which,  like  the  bush  of  Horeb,  burned  and  was  not  consumed, 
and  rank,  and  place,  and  station,  and  stars  and  garters,  and  the  gew- 
gaw trappings  of  nobility  wTere  showered  in  promiscuous  profusion ; 
wreaths  of  laurel  adorned  the  brows  of  the  brave,  and  the  devotees  of 
pleasure  danced  at  the  music  of  secession  sackbut  and  psaJtry  and  harp, 
uand  all  went  merry  as  a  marriage  bell."  Though  sectional  feeling 
had,  after  many  years  of  profitless  conflict,  culminated,  and  the  wise 
and  union-loving  were  engaged  in  restoring  friendly  relations,  under 
circumstances  more  favorable  to  success  than  thirty  years  of  struggles' 
had  furnished,  and  though  Congress  was  organizing  the  territories 
without  restriction  upon  domestic  institutions,  yet  the  time  for  dis- 
union, so  long  invoked,  had  come,  and  one  State,  so  far  as  in  her 
power,  sundered  the  bonds  that  made  her  a  member  of  the  Union  be- 
fore the  result  of  the  Presidential  election  had  been  declared  by  Con- 
gress. They  turned  their  backs  upon  friends  and  sympathizers,  de- 
nounced laggards  in  the  cause,  declared  their  repudiation  of  the  Con- 
stitution, and  applied  the  torch  to  the  temple  of  free  government  and 
the  Union,  with  as  little  solemnity  as  they  would  have  repealed  an  act 
of  legislation.  The  property  of  the  United  States,  by  sea  and  by  land, 
was  seized,  and  the  government  was  defied  and  menaced  by  armed 
forces,  and  avowed  preparation  for  war ;  other  States  followed,  in 
form,  if  not  in  substance,  by  the  action  of  politicians  if  not  people — 
some  half  willing,  others  more  than  half  forced — those  who  should 
have  stood  with  sleepless  zeal  upon  the  ramparts  of  the  Constitution, 
ingloriously  surrendered  their  posts,  and  the  reign  of  anarchy  was 
thus  inaugurated  in  our  own  happy  land. 

All  this  increased,  and  seriously  too,  the  embarrassment  which  sur- 
rounded the  question.  But  still  the  spirit  of  the  times,  the  voice  of 
the  people  in  every  section,  South  as  well  as  North,  demanded  peace — 
that  abstractions  should  be  laid  aside,  that  every  substantial  cause  of 
grievance  should  be  redressed,  .and  that  the  interests  of  a  great  and 
prosperous  nation  should  not  be  disturbed,  nor  the  moral  sense  of  the 
world  shocked  by  a  conflict  of  arms  among  brethren.  There  was  yet 
hope  that  the  cup  of  intestine  war  might,  in  mercy,  be  permitted  to 
pass.  The  report  of  the  first  hostile  gun  which  was  discharged,  how- 
ever, proclaimed  to  the  world  that  all  chances  of  peaceful  adjustment 
were  over;  that  "  heaven  in  anger  for  a  dreadful  moment,  had  suffered 
hell  to  take  the  reins" — that  Pandora's  box  was  opened  again,  and  the 


16 


T  H  I  UNION. 


deadliest  plagues  known  to  earth  let  loose  to  curse  it:  but  like  that 
repository  of  evils,  hope  yet  smiled  at  the  bottom.  Argument  and 
opinion  were  thrust  aside  for  violence  and  blood  with  deliberate  prep- 
aration. Is  it  strange  that  the  natural  elements  sympathized  with 
the  occasion,  as  the  intelligence  flashed  through  the  land?  A  sheet  of 
Cimmerian  darkness,  near  midnight,  hung  like  a  death-pall  over  the 
earth — the  winds  moaned  heavily,  like  the  wail  of  spirits  lost — doors 
creaked  and  windows  clattered,  driving  currents  and  counier-currents 
of  sleet  and  rain  descended  like  roaring  cataracts;  but  the  hoarse  and 
startling  shriek  of  the  New  York  newsboy  rose  above  all  with  the  ap- 
palling cry,  "The  bombardment  of  Fort  Sumter!"  and 

*  Gave  signs  of  woo 
That  all  was  lost." 

The  blood-fiend  laughed  loud  ;  the  evil  genius  of  humanity  clapped 
his  hands  in  triumph  ;  monarchy  u  grinned  horribly  a  ghastly  smile," 
but  liberty,  bathed  In  tears,  was  bowed  in  shame,  for  the  madness  of 
her  degenerate  children. 

The  first  flash  of  artillery  kindled  anew  a  flame  of  patriotic  devotion 
to  country,  which  will  burn  with  a  pure  and  constant  glow,  when  the 
lamp  of  mortal  existence  shall  pale  and  flicker  in  death.  Its  first  re- 
verberations upon  the  air,  aroused  a  slumbering  love  of  Constitution 
and  of  Union,  and  of  the  cherished  emblem  of  all,  the  stars  and 
stripes,  which  will  not  again  seek  repose  until  the  roar  of  hostile  guns 
shall  be  silenced.  It  startled  to  their  feet,  as  if  by  a  common  impulse, 
twenty  millions  of  freemen,  to  guard  the  citadel  of  their  faith  from 
destruction,  as  war  was  driving  his  ebon  car  upon  his  remorseless 
mission. 

This  civil  intestine  war  is  one  of  the  most  fearful  and  ferocious  that 
ever  desolated  the  earth,  and  its  authors  will  be  cursed,  when  the 
atrocities  of  Bajazet  and  Tamerlane,  and  the  Khans  of  Tartary  and 
India,  and  other  despoilers  of  the  earth  shall  be  forgotten.  It  is  a  war 
between  and  among  brethren.  Those  whose  eyes  should  have  beamed 
in  friendship,  now  gleam  in  war ;  those  who  close  in  the  death  strug- 
gle upon  the  battle-field,  were  children  of  the  same  household  and 
nurtured  at  the  same  gathering-place  of  affection;  baptized  at  the 
same  font,  and  confirmed  at  the  same  chancel : 

"They  grew  in  beauty  side  by  side, 
They  filled  one  house  with  glee ; 
*  *  * 

"Whose  voices  mingled  as  they  prayed 
Eound  the  same  parent  knee." 

But,  while  we  express  deep  humiliation  for  the  depravity  of  our 


THE  UNION. 


17 


kind,  and  are  shocked  and  sickened  at  a  spectacle  so  revolting,  we 
should  not  abandon  the  dear  old  mansion  to  the  flames,  even  though 
kindled  by  brethren,  who  should  have  watched  over  it  with  us,  and 
guarded  it  from  harm.  And,  while  we  should  not  raise  our  hand  to 
shed  a  brother's  blood,  we  may  turn  aside  his  insane  blow,  aimed  at  the 
heart  of  the  venerated  mother  of  all.  And,  if  a  great  power  of  Eu- 
rope is  disposed  to  sympathize  with  rebellion,  and  believes  this  Gov- 
ernment and  this  people  can  be  driven,  by  the  menace  of  foreign  and 
domestic  forces  combined,  to  avoid  the  curses  of  war,  let  her  try  the 
experiment.  But  when  they  come,  to  save  time  and  travel,  let  them 
bring  with  them  a  duly-executed  quit-claim  to  the  Union,  for  such 
portions  of  the  North  American  continent  as  they  have  not  surren-  I 
dered  to  it  in  former  conflicts,  for  they  will  have  occasion  for  just 
such  an  instrument,  whenever  their  impertinent  interference  is  mani- 
fested practically  in  our  domestic  affairs. 

Conspicuous  in  this  strange  passage  of  the  new  world's  history  is 
the  secession  of  Texas.  A  state  with  extended  territories,  and  the 
right  to  form  four  more  States  from  them  without  restriction,  south 
of  the  old  Missouri  line — a  State  requiring  the  protection  of  the  Fed- 
eral Government  to  guard  it  from  marauding  savages  and  other  hos- 
tile bands — a  State  which  was  never  wronged  by  a  Northern  State, 
nor  by  the  Government  of  the  Union,  in  theory  or  in  practice.  This 
State  was  the  last  Southern  State  gathered  under  the  flag  of  the 
Union — admitted  in  1845,  more  as  a  Southern  than  a  Northern  meas- 
ure ;  admitted,  too,  under  peculiar  circumstances,  after  a  most  memo- 
rable struggle,  and  in  the  highest  branch  of  the  National  Legislature 
by  a  single  vote. 

''  Sir  John  of  Hynford,  'twas  my  blade 
That  knighthood  on  thy  shoulder  laid ; 
For  this  good  deed,  permit  me  then, 
A  word  to  these  misguided  men." 

Not  those  who  would  seek  to  maintain,  but  those  who  labor  to  de- 
stroy the  Union,  you  have  widely  mistaken  both  the  temper  and  the  I 
purpose  of  the  great  body  of  people  of  the  Free  States  in  the  present 
crisis.  In  this  unnatural  struggle,  which  your  leaders  have  forced 
upon  them,  they  seek  only  to  uphold  and  maintain,  and  preserve  from 
destruction,  a  Government  which  is  a  common  inheritance,  and  in  the 
preservation  of  which  you  are  equally  interested.  They  seek  not  to 
despoil  your  States,  not  to  disturb  your  internal  relations,  but  to  pre- 
serve the  Union  which  shelters  and  protects  all,  and  vindicate  the  Con- 
stitution, which  is  especially  your  only  defence  from  aggression — is  both 
your  sword  and  shield.    They  war  not  upon  your  peculiar  system  of 


18 


THE  UNION. 


''  domestic  servitude,  nor  will  they ;  but  they  admonish  you  in  a  spirit 
I  of  kindness,  that  during  this  brief  struggle,  its  friends  and  advocates 
have  been  its  worst  enemies,  and  have  furnished  arguments  against 
it  which  will  weaken  its  foundations,  when  the  denunciations  of  its 
|.  most  persistent  Anti-Slavery  toes  arc  forgotten  forever.    You  arraign 
the  people  of  the  Free  States  for  rallying  around  the  Go\ eminent  of 
the  Union,  of  which  a  few  months  since  you  were  members,  and  sus- 
1.  tained  it  yourselves,  and  which,  at  the  time  of  your  alleged  secession, 
■'.  had  experienced  no  change  beyond  one  of  political  administrations, 
j  You  rebuke  those  w  ho  stood  with  you  through  good  and  evil  report, 
in  defence  of  the  Constitution,  and  all  its  guaranties,  in  its  dark  days 
y|  of'trial  when  menaced  only  by  opinion,  for  sustaining  it  now,  when  it 
is  assailed  by  armed  forces,  and  insist  that  after  having  defended  that 
l,  sacred  instrument  so  long  and  so  faithfully,  they  are  bound  now  to 
assist  in  its  overthrow  ! — a  system  of  law,  logic  and  morality,  peculiar 
to  disunion  ethics  alone.    Von  repudiate  the  Constitution  with  no 
.  sufficient  cause  of  revolution,  for  all  the  alleged  causes  of  grievance 
1  as  stated  were  insufficient  to  justify  it,  and  proclaimed  a  dissolution 
j  of  the  Union,  defied  and  dishonored  its  flag,  and  menaced  the  Gov- 
,  eminent  by  denouncing  actual  war.    You  seized  by  violence  its  for- 

•  tresses,  armories,  ships,  mints,  custom-houses,  navy-yards,  and  other 
(  property,  to  which  you  had  not  even  a  pretence  of  right,  and  threat- 
.  ened  to  take  possession  of  the  National  Capital.  You  bombarded 
I  Fort  Sumter,  a  fortress  of  the  United  States,  garrisoned  as  a  peace 
j  establishment  only,  and  in  a  state  of  starvation,  from  batteries  which 
j  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  in  its  extreme  desire  for  peace, 
|  permitted  you  to  erect  for  that  purpose,  under  the  guns  of  the  same 
;  fortification,  a  proceeding  unheard  of  before,  and  never  to  be  repeated 
i  hereafter, — bombarded  it  too,  because  the  flag  of  the  Union,  which 

.  your  fathers  and  yourselves  had  fought  under  with  us  the  battles  of 
j  the  Constitution — a  flag  which  a  few  days  previously  you  had  hailed 
,  with  pride — because  the  stars  and  stripes,  the  joy  of  every  American 
i  heart,  full  of  glowing  historic  and  lofty  recollections,  was  floating 
over  it,  according  to  the  custom  of  every  nation  and  people  under 
,  heaven,  was  hateful  in  your  sight !    The  Athenians  were  tired  of 

•  hearing  their  great  leader  called  the  Just,  and  consigned  him  to  ban- 
.  ishment.  Y^ou  were  annoyed  at  the  sight  of  the  noblest  national  em- 
,  blem  which  floats  under  the  sun,  when  unfurled,  whereby  our  consent, 

and  for  a  consideration  too,  the  Government  of  the  United  States  held 
;  exclusive  jurisdiction,  and  where  it  properly  belonged,  and  for  this  you 
:  commenced  a  war  promising  to  be  more  ferocious  and  exterminating 
,  throughout  the  Republic,  than  was  the  atrocious  decree  of  Herod  in  a 


THE  UNION. 


10 


single  village.  Sumter  was  not  erected  for  the  exclusive  defence  of 
the  harbor  of  Charleston,  but  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  a  foreign 
enemy  from  making  a  lodgment  there,  and  from  that  point  levying 
successful  maritime  war  upon  New  York,  Boston,  Philadelphia,  Bal- 
timore, New  Orleans,  and  other  towns  and  cities.  And  the  unfriendly 
relations,  which  sprung  up  between  the  Southern  States  and  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  Union,  made  its  retention  and  occupation  more  neces- 
sary than  before. 

You  will  not  consent  that  the  General  Government,  the  government 
of  the  whole  people,  should  march  forces  over  the  "  sacred  soil  of  a 
State"  of  the  Confederacy,  to  maintain  its  own  dignity  and  authority, 
to  check  rebellion,  and  save  the  capital  from  conflagration  and  *its 
archives  from  destruction ;  but  you  should  stand  admonished  that 
there  is  no  soil  sufficiently  sacred  under  the  broad  a?gis  of  the  Consti-j 
tution,  to  shelter  armed  rebellion  or  secret  treason;  and  that  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States  has  not  only  full  right  and  lawful  au- 
thority to  march  its  forces  over  every  inch  of  territory  between  the 
St.  Lawrence  and  the  Pacific  to  stop  the  progress  of  enemies,  foreign 
or  domestic;  to  put  down  rebellion,  or  to  arrest  those  who  despoil  its 
property,  or  resist  the  execution  of  its  laws ;  but  that  it  is  its  first  and 
most  solemn  duty  to  do  so.  Should  the  General  Government  enter  a 
State  for  the  purpose  of  interference  with  its  domestic  policy,  it  would 
be  usurpation,  and  an  unwarrantable  invasion — a  neglect  to  employ 
its  power  to  enforce  its  constitutional  prerogative  would  be  a  culpable 
disregard  of  official  obligation.  You  propose  to  defend  your  home- 
hearths,  your  firesides,  your  porches,  your  altars,  your  wives  and  your 
children,  your  household  gods ;  and  these  resolves  sound  well  indeed, 
even  in  the  abstract ;  but  practically  the  defence  will  be  in  time  when 
they  are  assailed,  or  at  least  threatened.  And  you  may  rest  with  the 
assurance,  that  when  either  of  these  sacred  and  cherished  interests 
shall  be  desecrated,  or  placed  in  danger  or  in  jeopardy  from  any  Van- 
dal spirit  upon  the  globe,  you  shall  not  defend  them  alone ;  for  an 
army  from  the  Free  States,  mightier  than  that  which  rose  up  to  crush 
your  rebellion,  uaye,  a  great  multitude,  which  no  man  can  number," 
will  defend  them  for  you.  But  the  issue  must  not  be  changed  or  frit- 
tered away.  Sumter  was  not  your  home-hearth,  Pickens  your  fire- 
side, Harper's  Ferry  your  porch,  the  navy-yards  your  altars,  the  cus- 
tom-houses, and  post-offices,  and  revenue-cutters  your  wives  and 
children,  nor  the  mints  your  household  gods.  The  Government  has 
no  right  to  desecrate  your  homes,  nor  have  you  the  right  to  seize 
upon  and  appropriate  to  yourselves,  under  any  name  however  specious, 
what  is  not  your  own,  but  the  property  of  the  whole  people  of  the 


20  THE  UNION. 

United  States ;  not  of  those  in  array  against  it  as  enemies,  defying  its 
laws,  but  those  who  acknowledge  and  defer  to  its  authority. 
|i  You  desire  peace!    Then  lay  down  your  arms  and  you  will  have  it. 
jUt  was  peace  when  you  took  them  op,  it  will  be  peace  when  you 
I  ay  them  down.    It  will  be  peace  when  you  abandon  war  and  return 
J  to  your  accustomed  pursuits.    Honorable,  enduring,  pacific  relations 
will  be  found  in  complete  obedience  to  the  provisions  of  theConstitu- 
;ion,  and  not  in  its  violation  or  destruction.    The  Government  is 
sustained  by  the  people,  not  for  the  purpose  of  coercing  States  in  their 
.  lomestic  policy,  not  for  the  purpose  of  crushing  members  of  the  Con- 
federacy because  they  tail  to  conform  to  a  Federal  standard,  not  for 
,  he'purpose  of  despoiling  their  people,  and  least  of  all,  not  for  the 
rarpose  of  disturbing,  or  in  any  degree  interfering  with  the  system  of 
i  Southern  servitude;  but  for  the  sole  and  only  purpose  of  putting  down 
in  unholy  armed  rebellion,  which  has  defied  the  authority  of  the 
.  iovernment  and  seeks  its  destruction,  and  in  this  their  determination 
s  taken  with  a  resolution,  compared  with  which  the  edicts  of  the 
Medes  and  Persians  were  yielding  and  temporary.    When  the  Govern- 
;  nent  of  our  fathers  shall  be  again  recognized,  when  the  Constitution 
,  Uld  the  laws,  to  which  every  citizen  owes  allegiance,  shall  be  observed 
md  obeyed;  then  will  the  armies  of  the  Constitution  and  the  Union 
i  lisband,  by  a  common  impulse,  in  obedience  to  a  unanimous  popular 
;  bill.     And  should  the  present  or  any  succeeding  Administration 
!  ittempt  to  employ  the  authorities  of  the  Government  and  people  to 
1  coerce  States,  or  mould  their  internal  affairs  in  derogation  of  the  Con- 
i  ititution,  the  same  array  of  armed  forces  would  again  take  the  field, 
'put  it  would  be  to  arrest  Federal  assumption  and  usurpation  and 
\  protect  the  domestic  rights  of  States.    War  is  emphatically,  and  more 
i  'specially  a  war  between  brethren,  a  disgrace  to  civilization — and  any 
,var  is  a  drain  upon  the  life-blood  of  a  nation,  and  originates  in  wrong, 
i  Evil  spirits  give  power  to  evil  men  for  its  inauguration,  that  amid 
I  conflicts  of  blood  they  may  cast  all  roaring  down  to  the  dark  regions, 
;  where  the  waves  of  oblivion  will  close  over  them.    Its  evils  cannot  be 
.'  written,  even  in  human  blood.    It  sweeps  our  race  from  the  earth,  as 
i  f  Heaven  had  repented  the  making  of  man.    It  lays  its  skinny  hand 
•  lpon  society,  and  leaves  it  deformed  by  wretchedness  and  black  with 
I  T0re.    It  marches  on  its  mission  of  destruction  through  a  red  sea  of 
i  olood,  and  tinges  the  fruits  of  earth  with  a  sanguine  hue,  as  the  mul- 
]  jerry  reddened  in  sympathy  with  the  romantic  fate  of  the  devoted 
!  overs.    It  "spoils  the  dance  of  youthful  blood,"  and  writes  sorrow 
i  ind  grief  prematurely  upon  the  glad  brow  of  childhood.    It  chills  the 
leart  and  hope  of  youth.    It  drinks  the  life  current  of  early  manhood, 


THE     UNION.  21 

and  brings  down  the  gray  hairs  of  the  aged  with  sorrow  to  the  gra ve 
It  weaves  the  widow's  weeds  with  the  bridal  wreath,  and  oar  land 
like  Rama,  is  filled  with  wailing  and  lamentation.  It  lights  up  few 
darkness  with  the  flames  of  happy  homes.  It  consumes,  like  tin 
locusts  of  Egypt,  every  living  thing  in  its  pathway.  It  wrecks  for 
tunes,  brings  bankruptcy  and  repudiation,  and  blasts  the  fields  of  tin 
husbandman — it  depopulates  towns,  and  leaves  cities  a  modern  Her 
culaneum.  It  desolates  the  fireside,  and  covers  the  family  dwelling 
with  gloom,  and  an  awful  vacancy  rests,  where,  like  the  haunte< 
mansion, 

"No  human  figure  stirred  to  go  or  come, 

No  face  looked  forth  from  open  shut  or  casement, 
No  chimney  smoked  ;  there  was  no  sign  of  home, 
From  parapet  to  basement. 

"No  dog  was  on  the  threshold,  great  or  small, 
No  pigeon  on  the  roof,  no  household  creature, 
No  cat  demurely  dozing  on  the  wall, 
Not  one  domestic  feature." 

It  loads  the  people  with  debt,  to  pass  down  from  one  generation  t< 
another,  like  the  curse  of  original  sin ;  upon  its  merciless  errand  o 
violence,  it  fills  the  land  with  crime  and  tumult  and  rapine,  and  i 
"gluts  the  grave  with  untimely  victims,  and  peoples  the  world  o 
perdition."  In  the  struggles  of  its  death  throes,  it  heaves  the  morn 
elements  with  convulsions,  and  leaves  few  traces  of  utility  behind  i 
to  mitigate  its  curse,  and  he  who  inaugurates  it,  like  the  ferociou 
Hun,  should  be  denominated  the  scourge  of  God,  and  when  his  day  c 
reckoning  shall  come,  he  will  call  upon  the  rocks  and  mountains  t< 
hide  him  from  popular  indignation.  But  with  all  its  attending  evils 
such  a  Union  cannot  be  yielded  to  its  demands,  nor  to  avoid  its  terrors 
even  though,  like  the  Republic  of  France,  we  may  exchange  for  a  tim 
"liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity,"  for  infantry,  cavalry  and  artillerv 
Nor  are  tame  and  timid  measures  the  guarantors  of  peace.  It  is  a 
much  the  nature  of  faction  to  be  base  as  of  patriotism  to  be  noble 
and  a  divided  Union,  instead  of  securing  peace,  would  present  con 
stant  occasion  for  conflict,  and  be  a  fruitful  source  of  war.  Let  thi 
rabble  cry  of  divide  and  crucify  go  on  from  the  throat  of  faction,  an< 
the  cold  and  calculating  political  Pilates  wash  their  hands  and  pro 
claim  their  innocence,  while  their  souls  are  stained  with  guilt  an< 
crime  for  urging  it  forward;  but  let  the  faithful,  conscious  of  thei 
integrity,  and  strong  in  truth,  endure  to  the  end.  Yet  ruthless  a 
is  the  sway,  and  devastating  as  is  the  course  of  war,  it  is  not  th<  - 
greatest  of  evils  nor  the  last  lesson  in  humiliation.    "  Sweet  are  th. 


T  II  B 


U  X  I  O  N . 


tises  of  adversity."  In  its  current  of  violence  and  blood  it  may  purify 
Min  atmosphere  too  long  surcharged  with  discontent  and  corruption, 
ftlnd  apostasy  and  treachery  and  littleness,  and  prove  how  poor  a 
Remedy  it  is  for  social  grievances.  It  may  correct  the  dry-rot  of 
hlemoralization  in  public  station,  and  raise  us,  as  a  people,  above  the 

Uead  level  of  a  mean  and  morbid  ambition.    It  may  scatter  the  tribe 

nf  bloated  hangers-on  who  seek  to  serve  their  country  that  they 
.•'Shay  plunder  and  betray  it;  and  above  all  it  may  arouse  the  popular 
jisnind  to  a  }\\<t  sense  of  its  responsibility,  until  it  shall  select  its  ser- 
vants with  care,  and  hold  them  to  a  faithful  discharge  of  their  duties; 

until  deficient 'morals  shall  be  held  questionable,  falsehood  a  social 
Built,  violations  of  truth  a  disqualification,  and  bribery  a  disgrace — 

Until  integrity  shall  be  a  recommendation,  and  treason  and  larceny 
,-«r  imes. 

i  Can  a  Union  once  dissevered  be  reconstructed  by  the  arrangement 
pf  all  parties  concerned  in  its  formation  ?  No  !  When  it  is  once  de- 
stroyed it  is  destroyed  forever.     Let  those  who  believe  it  can  be,  first 

ttaise  the  dead,  place  the  dimpling  laogfa  of  childhood  upon  the  lip  of 
mge,  gather  up  the  petals  of  May-flowers  and  bind  them  upon  their  na- 
tive stems  in  primeval  freshness  amid  the  frosts  of  December,  bring 
Lack  the  withered  leaves  of  autumn  and  breathe  into  them  their  early 
.luxuriance,  and  then  bring  together  again  the  scattered  elements  of  a 
..dissevered  Union,  when  the  generous  spring-time  of  our  Republic  has 
Joassed  away,  and  sellishness  and  ambition  have  come  upon  us  with 
Bteir  premature  frosts  and  "winter  of  discontent." 
Jrt  Shall  we  then  surrender  to  turbulence  and  faction,  and  rebellion, 
pud  give  up  the  Union  with  all  its  elements  of  good,  all  its  holy  mem- 
ories, all  its  hallowed  associations,  all  its  blood-bought  history  \ 
i 

"  No !  let  the  eagle  change  his  plume, 
N  The  leaf  its  hue,  the  flower  its  bloom," 

[^ut  do  not  give  up  the  Union.  Preserve  it  to  ''flourish  in  immortal 
Lfouth,"  until  it  is  dissolved  amid  the  wreck  of  "matter,  and  the  crash 
Egf  worlds."  Let  the  patriot  and  statesman  stand  by  it  to  the  last, 
fvhether  assailed  by  foreign  or  domestic  foes,  and  if  he  perishes  in  the 
Uonflict,  let  him  fall  like  Rienzi,  the  last  of  the  Tribunes,  upon  the 
Oame  stand  where  he  has  preached  liberty  and  equality  to  his  country- 
men. 

L  Preserve  it  in  the  name  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Revolution — preserve 
cf  for  its  great  elements  of  good — preserve  it  in  the  sacred  name  of 
^berty — preserve  it  for  the  faithful  and  devoted  lovers  of  the  Consti- 
tution in  the  rebellious  States — those  who  are  persecuted  for  its  sup- 


THE     0  N  ION. 


23 


port,  and  are  dying  in  its  defence.  Rebellion  can  lay  down  its  arms 
to  Government — Government  cannot  surrender  to  rebellion. 

Give  up  the  Union  ?  "  this  fair  and  fertile  plain  to  batten  on  that 
moor."  Divide  the  Atlantic,  so  that  its  tides  shall  beat  in  sections, 
that  some  spurious  Neptune  may  rule  an  ocean,  of  his  own !  Draw  a 
line  upon  the  sun's  disc,  that  it  may  cast  its  beams  upon  the  earth  in 
divisions !  Let  the  moon,  like  Bottom  in  the  play,  show  but  half  its 
face!  Separate  the  constellation  of  the  Pleiades  and  sunder  the  bands 
of  Orion !  but  retain  the  Union. 

Give  up  the  Union,  writh  its  glorious  flag,  its  stars  and  stripes,  full 
of  proud,  and  pleasing,  and  honorable  recollections,  for  the  spurious 
invention  with  no  antecedents  but  the  history  of  a  violated  constitu- 
tion and  of  lawless  ambition  ?  No!  let  us  stand  by  the  emblem  of  our 
fathers. 

"Flag  of  the  free  heart's  hope  and  home, 
By  angel  hands  to  valor  given, 
Thy  stars  have  lit  the  welkin  dome, 
And  all  thy  hues  were  born  in  heaven." 

Ask  the  Christian  to  exchange  the  cross,  with  the  cherished  mem- 
ories of  a  Saviour's  love,  for  the  crescent  of  the  impostor,  or  to  address 
his  prayers  to  the  Juggernaut  or  Josh,  instead  of  the  living  and  true 
God!  but  sustain  the  emblem  our  fathers  loved  and  cherished. 

Give  up  the  Union?  Never.  The  Union  shall  endure,  and  its 
praises  shall  be  heard  when  its  friends  and  its  foes,  those  who  support 
and  those  who  assail,  those  who  bare  their  bosoms  in  its  defence,  and 
those  who  aim  their  daggers  at  its  heart,  shall  all  sleep  in  the  dust  to- 
gether. Its  name  shall  be  heard  with  veneration  amid  the  roar  of 
Pacific's  waves,  away  upon  the  rivers  of  the  North  and  East,  where 
liberty  is  divided  from  monarchy,  and  be  wafted  in  gentle  breezes 
upon  the  Rio  Grande.  It  shall  rustle  in  the  harvest,  and  wave  in  the 
standing  corn,  on  the  extended  prairies  of  the  West,  and  be  heard  in 
the  bleating  folds  and  lowing  herds  upon  a  thousand  hills.  It  shall  be 
with  those  who  delve  in  mines,  and  shall  hum  in  the  manufactories  of 
New  England,  and  in  the  cotton-gins  of  the  South.  It  shall  be  pro- 
claimed by  the  stars  and  stripes  in  every  sea  of  earth,  as  the  Ameri- 
can Union,  one  and  indivisible ;  upon  the  great  thoroughfares  wher- 
ever steam  drives  and  engines  throb  and  shriek,  its  greatness  and  per- 
petuity shall  be  hailed  with  gladness.  It  shall  be  lisped  in  the  earliest 
words,  and  ring  in  the  merry  voices  of  childhood,  and  swell  to  heaven 
upon  the  song  of  maidens.  It  shall  live  in  the  stern  resolve  of  man- 
hood, and  rise  to  the  mercy-seat  upon  woman's  gentle  availing  prayer. 
Holy  men  shall  invoke  its  perpetuity  at  the  altars  of  religion,  and  it  shall 


24 


THE  UNION. 


,  be  whispered  in  the  last  accents  of  expiring  age.  Thus  shall  survive 
and  he  perpetuated  the  American  Union,  and  when  it  shall  he  pro- 
•  claimed  that  time  shall  he  no  more,  and  the  curtain  shall  fall,  and  the 
,  good  shall  be  gathered  to  a  more  perfect  Union  still,  may  the  destiny 
;  of  our  dear  land  realize  the  conception,  that 

u  Perfumes  as  of  Eden  flowed  sweetly  along. 
And  a  voice,  as  of  angels,  enchantinirly  suiiir, 
Columbia,  Columbia,  to  glory  arise, 
The  Queen  of  the  world,  and  the  child  of  the  skies." 


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